Orbs of Grey
by the anomaly
Summary: This story shows the life of a human child in an Elvish family and community. It is my first fanfic, please read and review!
1. Chapter I

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any of the characters in the story; all of them belong to J.R.R Tolkein. However, I do call the plot my own. If this story seems similar to any other stories in it is purely coincidental and no harm is meant to anyone. Please read and review.

**Summary**: This story shows the life of a human child in an Elvish family and community.

**Chapter I**

Night creeps into Rivendell. Three-year-old Estel climbed into his bed beneath the covers and closed his eyes in slumber, unlike the other inhabitants of the Last Homely House who sleep with their eyes open, silently drinking in the tastes of the land. As the darkness enveloped the fair land, the young human child also gets wrapped up in dreams of his own.

Horses' hoofs landing on the dirt, a tap-tap galloping sound in the distance. Dust swirling in the air. Shouts and war cries of hideous beings. All elements of Estel's surroundings were mingling into one big chaotic picture, which he failed to comprehend. Turning to his mother, he realised that she was not there, but heard her voice in the adjoining room of the tent beyond the thin sheet that served as a partition. Padding over to her on his short, fat legs, he grabbed Gilrean's leg in fear of the sight before him. It was of his father lying on the floor mattress, but something was strangely amiss through his child-like eyes.

His father's eye was distended, almost gorged out of its socket, with blood flowing freely from the bloodied mess of muscle and tissue. Sweat trickled down his forehead and trailed along his pale cheek. Arathorn opened his dry-parched mouth to speak, but no sound came out, save a painful groan, before collapsing and lapsing into unconsciousness.

As Estel called out, "Papa!" in his dream, the image slowly swirled black and an unnerving silence filled the air.

All of a sudden, he saw something coming towards him. It was an evil- looking creature with a hooked nose and large webbed ears. Sniveling, it opened its mouth in a sneer to reveal long yellow fangs covered with thread- like slime, making gurgling noises in its throat. However, all that Estel noticed were the creature's eyes. There was dark liquid flowing out of them and they hung gingerly to the sockets by a thin sinew, just like one of his Papa's eyes ere he died. Without warning, the creature started to charge towards him, and as the distance between him and the creature lessened in degrees, more and more of them start coming for him, every one having the same facial expression and features. Just as one reaches for his throat with an iron fist and tries to throttle him to death.

Estel woke up with a start, eyes darting about the room as images of the dream threatened to merge with reality. But all Estel saw was darkness in his room that seemed to enclose unto him, smothering him in the black ink of the night. Trembling with fear, he slowly moved out of bed and felt for a candle and matches on the table to light up the room. Unfortunately, he accidentally knocked the candle off the table, causing it to fall on the ground with a seemingly deafening "thud", breaking the silence of the night. Frightened by the sudden noise, Estel scrambled back into bed and crawled into a corner, hugging his pillow fiercely as if it would allay his fears of the creature that haunted him in his sleep as silent tears rolled down his cheeks...

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Lord Elrond, master of Rivendell was in his study surrounded by old dusty records of the weaponry and defense formations of his land when suddenly, he heard a sound resonating from his adopted son's room not far away. Hastily, he put down his quill and headed for Estel's bedroom to check if things were all right.

As he entered the dark room, Elrond saw his son huddled in one corner of his bed, head poking out of the massive pillow and peering at him. His face was as pale as a sheet and his wild grey eyes depicted a fear even the child could not fathom. Elrond walked slowly towards Estel and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching out to the child to comfort him. But Estel shied away from the tall, dark-haired elf he was told to acknowledge as his "new" Papa, and shifted further away from him, as if his father was the creature in his dream whose touch would hurt him.

"Come, young one. I will not hurt you. You must have had a bad dream? ", said Elrond with a kind gaze and a queer raise of an eyebrow. But all he got was a whimper from the boy. Edging nearing to his son, he pushed the dark, wavy hair out of his eyes and caressed the damp cheek with long cool fingers before rising to retrieve the fallen candle.

When he turned around, he saw that Estel had already lain quietly down on his bed and seemed fast asleep. Afraid that if he probed the boy about the matter, it would only heighten his fear, Elrond pulled the covers over his son up to his small chin and stayed with him until he was certain that he was asleep and then left the room. Little did he know that Estel was engaged in an inner battle of his own, struggling against his own fears that sleep brought him beneath his lidded eyes...

**To Be Continued... **


	2. Chapter II

**Disclaimer**: I do not own any of the characters in the story; all of them belong to J.R.R Tolkein. However, I do call the plot my own. If this story seems similar to any other stories in it is purely coincidental and no harm is meant to anyone. Please read and review!

**Chapter II  
**  
The dawn broke. Light rays filtered through clouds and bypassed the canopy of the trees, falling softly on Rivendell. Two weeks had passed, and the nights on which both Lord Elrond and his foster son enjoyed undisturbed sleep were few and far between. Almost every other night, the former had rushed to the latter's room in the midst of his work and painfully witnessed the silent torment. Estel's physical reactions were gradually becoming more violent, the worst being him screaming wildly in the night, limbs thrashing against some unseen foe before flailing limply to his sides. As his screams slowly died down to whimpers, his father pulled him into a close embrace and murmured soothing Elvish lullabies to calm the child. Surprisingly, Estel did not recoil from his father, but instead buried his face in Elrond's tunic and started to cry. The tears broke free from his grey eyes like a released dam, swollen with water and flowing unchecked along it course. Looking on with pain-glazed eyes, the elf thought about the human's adoption a mere year ago.

"Why do you want to keep him? Why do you want to help in the affairs of men, Ada (Father)?" challenged Elrohir, who was fiercely adamant against the adoption of Aragorn, son of Arathorn into the House of Elrond.

"He is but a child, you do not understand; he deserves -- " Elrond explained patiently, but was countered by Elladan.

"Our pity? Our sympathy? Do you not remember the day when the strength of men failed? And this, Ada, is he not the heir of the cause of the Doom of Middle-Earth that is soon to come?"

"Do not try me, my sons!" Elrond breathed deeply and shut his eyes for a brief moment. "Yes, the blood that bore the weakness of Men is coursing through his veins, but he deserves a home, a father, a place to live if not to belong.just like the two of you. The fault of his kin is not to be put on him at such a young age, and neither should his innocent mind be yet burdened with his royal heritage and future labours. To let him live here and slowly acquire the skills he needs to reclaim the lost throne is.ideal. For my heart tells me he will mature into a man that has great will and strength."

"But Ada..."

"It matters not. If we do not provide refuge for the Heir of Isildur" Elrond flinched slightly at the name of the man which the Ring ensnared, "he will fall prey to the Orcs in the Wild who have been commanded to leave none of the Line of Kings alive."

He swallowed hard, for he remembered the loss of Celebrian to the Orcs, and through looking at his sons, he knew the passing of their mother to the Grey Havens had dealt them a heavy blow. "You know of whom's fate I speak. Hence thereforth, Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Heir of Isildur, shall reside in Imladris till he comes of age to join the Dunedain in the North, under the name of." He paused momentarily, before speaking with resolute, "Estel."

Then in a low voice, he addressed his sons, " Learn to love him, my sons. He is now your brother."

"Estel...Hope...Hope for the Dunedain." muttered Elrohir to himself.

Elrond sighed. It only seemed a while ago that the boy stepped upon the threshold of his house, his mother wholly consumed by grief. However, he did seek solace in the fact that both Elladan and Elrohir had begun to regard Estel as a brother and had tried taking turns to care for the young boy despite the differences in races between the two. This had soon come about after the twins had accepted the fact that it was not Estel's fault that his ancestor became corrupted by the ring, and had even been touched by the boy's soft features and innocence.

He was jerked out of his reverie when his sons entered his study. After the morning greeting, Elladan asked his father, "Ada, is there something wrong?" for he had observed the creased brow of a frown marring his father's ageless face and was concerned. Elrond denied this with a slight shake of the head, but Elrohir, knowing better, probed again, "It's Estel, isn't it?"

With a voice laced with despair, the elder elf haltingly related the several incidences of Estel's nightmares to his sons, and it added to his worries that his youngest son had hardly eaten much everyday since the start of his stay in his new home among the Elves, and had become gauntly thin for a human child his age. Not only that, Estel had seldom called Elrond "Ada", nor openly acknowledged his foster brothers, and even rarely requested any company from the Elflings living in the valley, which greatly puzzled the Elf. Through this, Elrond knew that Estel had neither come to terms of the death of his father nor that of his adoption despite living in Imladris for a whole year, and it would take a lot of time and effort to make the child feel that he did belong.

After a quick discussion, the three elves decided upon how to coax Estel out of his protective shell and to slowly immerse him into an environment with Elves, until he was comfortable enough to interact with others not of his own race on his own. Also, they wanted to get him to start talking about his dreams, in a bid to discover the root of his fears and to help him confront them, which would in turn dissolve the problems of Estel's unseen fear through time.

But in their hearts, they knew that no matter how hard or long the road was, the Hope of the Dunedain would not be lost unto the depths of the darkness...

**To be continued...**


End file.
